Facebook v Adblock: the anti-ad empire strikes back

Facebook v Adblock

Facebook v Adblock – Facebook thought it had thwarted ad-blockers on its network. Facebook was wrong

Two days ago, Facebook announced it had implemented changes to its site that would thwart ad blockers. Users who wanted to enjoy the worlds largest social network would continue to pay by seeing ads keyed to their Likes and web-browsing habits.

Now popular browser plugin Adblock Plus has returned fire, issuing a filter update that restores its commercial-killing powers to the world of Zuckerberg.

If you dont want to see ads about a certain interest like travel or cats, you can remove the interest from your ad preferences. We also heard that people want to be able to stop seeing ads from businesses or organizations who have added them to their customer lists, and so we are adding tools that allow people to do this.

Facebook v Adblock – According to the Adblock blog:

As many of you know, the filter lists that tell Adblock Plus what to block are in fact the product of a global community of web citizens. This time that community seems to have gotten the better of even a giant like Facebook.

Were disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts dont just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages, says a Facebook spokesperson. This isnt a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue. Ad blockers are a blunt instrument, which is why weve instead focused on building tools like ad preferences to put control in peoples hands.

The social network also takes exception to Adblocks policy of taking money from some of the webs largest advertisers including Google to whitelist adverts that follow its guidelines for acceptable ads. (This setting is turned on by default, but can be changed by people who wish to see no ads at all.) Facebook v Adblock

One of the rules advertisers must follow is that ads must not disrupt the users natural reading flow, and be placed to the side, above or below the primary content. Another is that ads can be clearly distinguished from non-ad content.

Sponsored content features prominently in the center of Facebooks newsfeed, which would hamper the networks ability to adhere to those guidelines, if it chose to.

Adblock is under no illusions that its respite from Facebooks ire will be anything more than temporary.

[T]his sort of back-and-forth battle between the open source ad-blocking community and circumventers has been going on since ad-blocking was invented; so its very possible that Facebook will write some code that will render the filter useless at any time … But for this round of the cat-and-mouse contest, looks like the mouse won.